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Vote Mugabe to survive: opposition

Chris McGreal, Harare

A woman shows her ink-stained finger after voting in Harare. Photo: AP

ZIMBABWE'S opposition advised its supporters to vote for Robert Mugabe for their own safety when they were herded to the polls yesterday amid threats of violence.

In a final push to intimidate voters, the ruling Zanu-PF's militia forced people to political meetings across large parts of Zimbabwe on Thursday.

They were warned that their "vote is their bullet" if they did not support President Mugabe, even though the opposition candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, has pulled out of the race, saying a state-orchestrated campaign of murder, abduction, beatings and rape made it too dangerous for his supporters to vote.

As the poll got under way G8 foreign ministers meeting in Japan said they would not accept Zimbabwe's Government as legitimate if it "does not reflect the will" of the people.

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US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is attending the talks, said the US would use its coming chairmanship of the UN Security Council to look at ways to pressure Zimbabwe over its "sham" election.

Despite predictions in state media of a "massive" turnout, the number of people queuing to cast their ballots when polling stations opened represented only a fraction of those seen in the first round 13 weeks ago.

In that vote, MDC leader Mr Tsvangirai emerged as the winner.

"Today's results will be meaningless because they do not reflect the will of the people of Zimbabwe," Mr Tsvangirai said as polls opened. "Today's results reflect only the fear of the people of Zimbabwe."

He urged voters not to cast their ballots. "If possible, we ask you not to vote today. But if you must vote for Mr Mugabe because of threats to your life, then do so."

The MDC has accused Zanu-PF of conducting what it called "operation elimination" by warning those who vote for Mr Tsvangirai that they "will be slain".

Entire villages have been forced to hand over their identity cards to local chiefs who were to give them back at polling stations to ensure people turn out to vote.

In other places, voters were to be given pre-marked ballots and told to hand back the blank ones they received in polling booths as evidence that they did not vote for the opposition.

Air force head Perence Shiri  who led the army unit responsible for the Matabeleland massacres in the 1980s  has been touring the eastern Manicaland province, where there has been widespread violence, telling people they must pretend to be illiterate and ask for help to vote from polling officers appointed by the Government.

Prosper Mutseyami, an MDC member of parliament in Manicaland, said the party was advising its supporters to vote Zanu-PF if necessary to save their lives.

"The Zanu-PF militia, the war vets, the soldiers are pushing people that they must vote and (telling) those who don't vote you will be killed," he said.

"In villages and townships people have been told they will be gathered in places for the whole night and taken together to vote in the morning.

"People are being forced to Zanu-PF rallies throughout Manicaland. They are beaten up and forced to repent for being MDC. People are terribly cowed and terrified, especially in rural areas."

Zanu-PF's intent appears to be to ensure a high turnout and a high proportion of the votes for Mr Mugabe, so that the ruling party can claim he won the support of a majority of Zimbabwean voters even with the MDC's boycott.

But whatever the size of Mr Mugabe's victory, the ballot appears likely to strip him of any lingering legitimacy after 28 years as Zimbabwe's president amid international revulsion at his party's terror campaign.

The MDC said it had little hope of repeating Mr Tsvangirai's defeat of Mr Mugabe in the first round of elections three months ago because of the violence.

At least 100 people have been killed  although a doctors' group puts the death toll closer to 500  hundreds more abducted, about 2000 opposition activists thrown into prison and thousands severely beaten as Mr Mugabe's security cabinet ran a military-style campaign to reverse his humiliating loss in the first-round election.

A respected independent monitoring group, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, said it could not send observers to polling stations because of the threat to their lives.

28 Jun
Counting is under way in Zimbabwe today after a run-off election, with President Robert Mugabe assured of victory as the sole candidate following a boycott by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.